Wild Card, Anger Management

The new playoff format is a hit, and gives baseball the added drama we haven't seen since the Rays/Red Sox race to the postseason a year ago. Wild Card Friday was shaping up to be sweet, but a couple of incidents left many fans with a sour taste.

Flip Table: National League Wild Card Edition

Braves fans are a tad disappointed with
the controversial "infield fly" ruling,
and voiced their opinions all over the field

Atlanta Braves fans are still reeling over the controversial finish and premature exit from postseason play yesterday as the St. Louis Cardinals doubled the Braves 6-3 at Turner Field. With the Braves down by three runs in the eighth inning, and runners on first and second with one out, Andrelton Simmons pops a short fly toward left field. Cardinals shortstop Pete Kozma ventured back to left field and made a late signal to catch the ball, but thought he heard teammate and left fielder Matt Holliday call for the ball behind him, and broke off his run. The ball dropped for what appeared to be a hit, which advanced the runners, but the outfield umpire gave the "Infield Fly" signal. This takes away the hit and calls Simmons out at first, but the runners stay.

Adron Chambers (left) scores after a bad throw to home plate
by shortstop Andrelton Simmons (not in picture). The Cardinals
scored four unearned runs on three Braves errors to win 6-3.

This was too much to take for Braves fans as they tossed bottles and debris onto the field prompting a nineteen minute delay. As you can tell from the video below, Braves manager Freddy Gonzalez was not too pleased with the ruling, and protested the game to no avail. As an observer, I find it fanciful the Atlanta Braves were the better team on the night. The Braves committed only eighty-six fielding errors during the 2012 campaign to rank among the best overall in the National League; that night, they committed three errors scoring four unearned runs. If you take those away, the Braves would be playing the Nationals on Sunday. Second, the Atlanta Braves left twenty-one runners on base, so for all their at-bats during the game no one could seal the deal. Finally, the emotion of the game did get the best of both players and umpires. St. Louis, however, used the nineteen minute delay to steady their nerves, prepare their closer Jason Motte to pitch the eighth and ninth innings, and win the game.

Flip Table: American League Wild Card Edition

I think the Texas Rangers are snakebitten. They had success within their grasp numerous times during the final two weeks of the season, but their offense could not seal the deal. It doesn't help matters when the lone left-handed starter turned reliever Derek Holland is pitching three times in seven days, and giving up costly hits, too.

O's, for Pete's sake! D:

The visiting Orioles outlasted the two-time American League champion Texas Rangers 5-1. After Yu Darvish struck out seven Baltimore batters and held them to only three runs, Ron Washington played the percentages and called in the tired Derek Holland to pitch to lefty leadoff hitter Nate McLouth (McLouth was 1-3 versus Holland, but a combined 0-3 versus prime relievers albeit righties Alexi Ogando and Koji Uehara). One wild pitch to move an Oriole baserunner to third, and a hit to left field with two outs later, the Orioles were on their way with a 3-1 lead.

A few of my friends are Rangers fans, so after the game I wrote as my status on Facebook about how each of us were flipping tables over and being surly. I should progress and move on, but the recent history of the Texas Rangers has me thinking there is something weird going on o_O To come within a catch of winning the World Series in Game 6 against the Cardinals, within a strike zone of winning in Game 7, to lose a five-game lead over the Athletics with nine to go for the American League West Division on the final day of the regular season, and then fall apart against the Baltimore Orioles two days later has me thinking there is a new "hoodoo" on the likable losers from Texas.

Are the Texas Rangers the new "Charlie Brown" of Major League Baseball? I don't want to think about that; all I want to do is this:  (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

(All images and video are property of Major League Baseball and MLB Network)